CNMI seeks to extend use of foreign labor for 10 years

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Beach Road, in the Garapan tourist district on Saipan, as seen in August. 2017.(Photo: PDN file photo)

A U.S. Senate committee has completed its work on a bill that would extend, by 10 years, the ability of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to use foreign labor, according to CNMI Del. Gregorio Sablan. It would allow as many as 13,000 foreign workers in the CNMI for fiscal 2019.

The Senate Energy and Natural Sources Committee this week reported out the “U.S. Workforce Act,” which was introduced in January by Sablan and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “All the key provisions from the Act as introduced remain,” Sablan said.

The CNMI had local authority on the entry of foreigners for decades, until the U.S. Congress decided in 2008 to remove local authorities' powers over immigration.

When the CNMI had local power over immigration, it became a magnet for garment factories that made clothes for well-known U.S. clothing brands, but the workers, mostly imported from China, were paid much less than the U.S. minimum wage, and some lived in what some members of Congress had called "sweatshop" conditions.

Congress decided to end the ability of the CNMI to employ large numbers of foreign workers by phasing them out over five years. When the CNMI-only transitional worker visa program began in 2009, 22,417 foreign workers were in the Northern Marianas.

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez in May 2014 informed CNMI officials he had granted the CNMI another five years to phase out its foreign worker program, through 2019. Without the extension, the CNMI would have been forced to abruptly send thousands of foreign workers back to their home countries, which local officials warned would cripple the local economy.

The new legislation would extend the deadline on the use of “Commonwealth Only Transitional Workers” from 2019 to 2029. Between 2025 and 2029, the annual cap on foreign worker permits would be cut by 500 each year.

Before applying for foreign worker permits, employers first must receive Department of Labor certification that no U.S. worker is able willing, qualified and available to accept the job at the prevailing wage for that occupation, it states.

“The transition program continues for another 10 years. We add 8,001 CW permits for 2019, lifting the cap to 13,000,” Sablan said Friday. “Local workers are protected from unfair competition by cheap foreign labor. Local businesses will not be undercut by bad actors who use up hundreds of CW permits. And CW workers who have worked lawfully and contributed to our community over the years will be eligible for special treatment with a renewable, 3-year permit.”